BOULDER — President Barack Obama turned aside from his GOP opponent Thursday at the Coors Event Center, returning to his 2008-style speeches of hope and change as he delivered a “stick with me” message to a 10,000-strong mostly student crowd.

In a departure from his stump speech of a week ago at Denver’s City Park, Obama barely mentioned Mitt Romney. He instead touted the accomplishments of eight years of former President Bill Clinton, saying Romney’s policies would be akin to returning to the years of former President George W. Bush.

“We know the ideas that work, we know our ideas work. We know the ideas that don’t work,” Obama said, in a longer-than-usual 34 minute speech. “Because in the eight years after Bill Clinton left office, his policies were reversed. The wealthiest Americans got tax breaks, companies got tax breaks for shipping jobs overseas … and folks at the top got to play by a different set of rules than the rest of us.”

Obama recycled his own four-year-old campaign phrase “change” and flipped it on his opponent.

The rally in this deeply blue part of Colorado five days before Election Day was meant to stir up the large numbers of freshly registered students and excite the masses to vote early.

“We need every single young person out there voting,” said Sen. Michael Bennet, a national co-chair for Obama, who was at the Boulder rally with his three daughters.

Some rally attendees held up white letters that spelled “VOTE EARLY” in the audience.

CNN released a poll just a few hours before Obama was set to take the stage showing a two-point lead for the president in Colorado, but the race was still statistically tied because the poll had a 3.5 percent margin of error.

“I think people are realizing this could come down to Colorado,” Bennet said.

Romney’s camp issued a statement before Obama’s visit: “The people of Colorado, along with the rest of America, will choose Gov. Romney’s optimistic vision for our country’s future over President Obama’s misguided policies and broken promises.”

Philip Ramos, 18, registered to vote in Colorado just a few months ago. He is a freshman from California and says he believes in Obama because the DREAM Act is important to him.

“I also feel like his education and foreign policy are better than what Romney would do,” Ramos said, from his front row perch at the events center.

Obama told the audience that he was less a gamble than Romney.

“After four years as president, you know me by now,” he said. “You know I’ll fight for you … that’s why I know what real change looks like, I fought for it. I got grey hair to show for it.”

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